Vettel takes pole in Britain, Button sixth

By Alan Baldwin
SILVERSTONE, England (Reuters) - Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel seized his second pole position in a row on Saturday while Formula One leader Jenson Button qualified only sixth for his home British Grand Prix.
Button's team mate and closest title rival Rubens Barrichello, whose last win was with Ferrari in 2004, took second place on the starting grid for Brawn GP with Australian Mark Webber third for Red Bull.
The pole, in a time of one minute 19.509 seconds, was the fourth of Vettel's Formula One career and third of the season. Barrichello lapped in 1:19.856.
Vettel's time looked even more impressive when official figures published later showed his car weighing in at 666.5 kg compared to Barrichello and Button's 657.5. Webber's Red Bull weighed 659.5.
"All the new parts we brought here seemed to have worked very well, so I think we have made a step forward," said the 21-year-old German, whose victory in China makes him the only driver other than Button to have won a race this year.
Button has a 26 point lead over Brazilian Barrichello, and is 32 ahead of Vettel, with 10 races remaining but was gloomy about his chances after struggling to heat up his tires.
"I think it is almost impossible (to win)," he said.
"I haven't had the pace all weekend. I was hoping for something a bit better, being sixth is a lot worse than I thought it would be.
"It is great having the crowd here, they support you whatever happens and I am sure they would love me to win tomorrow but that's going to be pretty difficult. I think a podium is also difficult," said Button.
WEBBER FURY
Webber blamed Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen for slowing him on a hot lap and keeping him off the front row:
"Kimi was, I don't know, drinking some vodka or dreaming or something," he said. "I don't know what the hell he was doing. He should have been on the right and he's on the racing line, dreaming, so that wrecked my rhythm into Stowe."
World champion Lewis Hamilton, who put in one of the all-time great performances in the wet to win for McLaren last year, suffered the worst qualifying performance of his Formula One career in 19th place.
He was unable to escape from the bottom group when Force India's Adrian Sutil crashed heavily into the tire wall at Abbey and the first session was red-flagged with 24 seconds remaining.
"I did the best I could. I was pushing as hard as I could. We were just dead slow," said Hamilton, who thanked the fans for their support. Continued...
Source: Reuters